Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Budget approved; City's finances 'better than expected' in 2006

Employees of the city of Gurdon are receiving an increase in pay after the Gurdon City Council approved the raises in the citys 2007 budget.

While presenting the proposed 2007 budget to the council during its meeting on Monday, Jan. 22, Mayor Clayton Franklin said he had adjusted the salary figure to include at 5 percent raise for all city employees. The employees did not receive a raise in 2006.

Franklin also reminded the council that the citys health insurance premiums had increased, and that was also included in the budget.

Recorder/treasurer Tambra Childres said city officials were not able to compile the 2007 budget until final numbers from 2006 had been totaled. About $85,000 was left in city accounts at the end of the year.

We ended up the year in black and in pretty good shape, Franklin said.

Childres said one thing that helped the city was an increase in sales tax revenue.

All of our sales taxes came in a little above what we projected last year, she said.

Franklin said it is important to note that the increase in sales tax occurred despite the fact that the Dollar General Store, one of Gurdons largest retailers, was closed for a large portion of the year after it was destroyed by fire.

Gurdon had a pretty good year.

The council approved both the amended 2006 and proposed 2007 budgets during the meeting. The amended 2006 budget is a requirement which shows the actual amounts spent by the city in all departments.

Franklin said all departments except the police department came in under budget in 2006. The police department was not over by much, he said.

The 2007 proposed budget states that the total operating costs for the city are more than $860,000.

Also during the meeting, the council approved a pay raise for employees of the Gurdon Water Department. These employees were not included in the budget raise because the water departments budget is separate from the citys main budget.

The water department works on a fiscal year which begins July 1.

Water department employees also received a 5 percent raise.

In other business, the council approved minutes from the December meeting and approved the citys financial statements and bills for payments.